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I know what you're saying, but uncanny valley refers to when something looks a little too realistic, not when it's lacking in realism. Even if the renders in Oddworld were stunningly real, you still wouldn't be in uncanny valley, as they are completely fictional characters that have no real-life counterparts to be compared to.
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My favourite example.
My least favourite example.
http://muppetswithpeopleeyes.tumblr.com/
From the same blog:
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“Uncanny Valley” does not necessarily refer to things that are trying to be realistic, nor does it mean “anything you think is ugly”. Specifically, the term “Uncanny Valley” was meant to refer to robots, saying that people will like things that look like obvious abstractions of people, and people will like things that look exactly like people, but people are repulsed by things that look almost like people but not quite.
It’s important to understand the limits of a style you’ve chose to work in. Realistic designs have to move realistically, stylized cartoons have to move like cartoons. Disney’s Cinderella can’t make the same boisterous exaggerated acting that her stepsisters do because her design is so much more conservative than theirs that it would look absurd and out of place. When cartoony characters move like humans, you get that cheap rotoscope/mo-cap look, but when real people move like cartoons you get the Black Hole Sun music video.
The further removed from reality something is, the harder it is to show subtlety and the bigger it needs to act. However, the more realistic something is supposed to be, the more horrifying it looks when you exaggerate it past normal limits.
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I guess the point I'm trying to steal here is that if something makes efforts to seem realistic, even fictitious things, it'll always feel uncomfortable when it breaks away from that. I wouldn't want to see a Slig's spine bent backwards.
However since a) Oddworld, and Munch in particular, is quite cartoony in its proportions and presentation and b) The renders aren't really that much of a departure from the most realistic versions we've seen, it's pretty much moot in this case.
